Link to story. This guy who left the army in 1993 got his AARP card and is being sent to Iraq, and
Now, I do know that the military can recall personnel, but how feasible is it to recall people in their 50s? I know you can bring back “critical need” people, but if this guy is essentially no longer qualified, aren’t they essentially going to invest a ton of resources for (and I hate to put it this way), someone who is a little past his “best before” date?
And can someone clarify me on what his status actually is per the article? (I don’t know if he is still reserve or what.)
I can’t tell from the article what his current MOS might be. Usually, if someone who’s been out of action that long is being called back, it’s because of a critical MOS. But if he feels it’s truly a mistake, it can be followed up on with the military.
My friend’s dad got a call around Gulf I to come on back in and start flying helos again- he turned them down, as he had been out of the left-hand seat for so long (15 years at least), he felt he would be a danger to everyone involved. The Corps agreed and that was that.
The computer didn’t see his age- just his MOS ad the fact that he was still alive.
Sloppy reporting; they don’t mention whether the guy’s an officer/warrant officer/NCO, or what specialty he held that might explain his recall, other than to say that the missile system he worked on is no longer in service by the Army. But again, this doesn’t cover much ground.
Officers/Warrant Officers don’t have an MOS; they have branch assignments, and may perform any one (or several) of many different tasks within their branch over their carreer. If the man in the OP was an officer noted for excelling at a particular task/skill set within a critically short branch, he may be recalled.
NCOs start off as enlisted, but the more senior they get, the more generalized they become within their branch, becoming more functionally middle-management/admin within their branch than focusing on any MOS-specific task-oriented skill set (like a First Sergeant, that started out as a diesel mechanic “way back when” as a Private, is probably acting as a Maintenance Manager).
While I agree that 15 years out of harness is probably a very long time to be recalling someone, it is not entirely out-of-question, depending on what this guy did in the Army.
Reminds me of Doctor John Caulfield, recalled when he was over 70 years old. Mentioned in this ( Warning : PDF ) article. Not quite as loony as it sounds, since he was a dentist, and provided dental care and not something more strenuous.
Nah. Just tell 'em you have since been recruited by ‘the gays’.
It worked before – there was a whole office of Arabic language specialists on the east coast, about half of whom were (fairly openly) gay. Military ‘Intelligence’ ran a big investigation, and threw them out, despite them wanting to stay and a real need for Arabic translators!
(I heard a story that they had then formed a for-profit consulting company, applied for & won a contract to do Arabic translating for the military. So they ended up back at the same base, doing the same thing, except now as civilian contractors, being paid way more than their previous military pay, and not having to wear uniforms, salute, etc.)
Things may have changed some since my time in service Jim, but:
Basically, any enlistment, even a 2-year enlistment, is actually an 8-year enlistment. When you finish the active component of your enlistment contract, you are transferred upon discharge to the Inactive Ready Reserve. Normally, this means nothing; you would only be called up in times of National Mobilization.
If you join the Reserves or National Guard and do the “weekend warrior” thing, that service time counts towards your 8-years.
Once you’ve done your 8-years, technically, you’re “out.” Unless Bararian Hordes are storming the beaches of America, and it’s “Katy-Bar-The-Door,” you’re safe from being recalled.
Unless…you have a skill the military is critically short of. In which case, they activate the “Your Ass Is Ours” clause that everyone pretty much glances over in their enlistment contract, which says that you have essentially sold your soul to Satan, and the military is making your their permanent finger-puppet.
Officers work differently. Once an officer is commissioned, they are “in” unless:
They retire;
They resign;
They are cashiered (usually bad conduct/incompetence);
They are “let go.” There’s a whole 'nother thread necessary to cover this one.
In cases 1, 2, & 4, if the military feels that they really need you (or, more commonly, some clerk screws up the paperwork, or, even moe commonly, there’s a programming glitch in the $100,000,000,000,000,000 computer system that runs the military’s personnel records system), you can be recalled to Active Duty.
In any case, when recalled to Active Duty, whether enlisted, NCO, Warrant Officer, or Officer, you will be paid at whatever rank/time-in-service you are recalled at, typically your rank upon previous discharge.
I’ve been out since 1996, which is a while but my MOS was 02H and there aren’t a lot of us around. Most people have no idea what that MOS is, even those in the Army --that’s an oboist in the military band system. Before you go all :dubious::dubious: on me, keep in mind there were eight bands deployed during the first Iraq conflict. I was still in the Army then so many of my friends were over there. I don’t know the current stats regarding deployed bands since I’m out and haven’t kept up with all of that.
I’m pretty sure I will not get called back but generals do love their bands and love to think they are promoting good troop morale. So who knows.
I watched the video and on his uniform were Warrant Officer bars. When he “left the service” he probably was in the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) like I was until September 2007 (I left Active Duty in 1992, left Active Reserves in 1999). When I had kids and a recall was going to be a seriously inconvenient situation, I formally requested to resign my commission and be reclassified as civilian, former military.
When I was an IRR Marine, I technically still had a file in Kansas somewhere that could be pulled out and they could have done the same to me (I would have been only 40), although the chances were low, it COULD happen, as it did to this guy.
When I “retired” at 23 years, I was actually in the inactive reserves, which meant that technically, they could have called me back up (fat fookin’ chance). Seven years later, when I hit 30 years total, I was sent my retirement notice.
